{"id":2036,"date":"2010-05-04T11:06:41","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T15:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=2036"},"modified":"2010-05-04T11:23:13","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T15:23:13","slug":"the-governor-the-adirondack-park-agency-and-tim-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/05\/04\/the-governor-the-adirondack-park-agency-and-tim-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"The Governor, the Adirondack Park Agency and Tim Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Glens Falls Post-Star has just completed a three-part series <\/a>examining the epic clash between the Adirondack Park Agency and a camp owner named Tim Jones, whose cabin sits on the Raquette River near Tupper Lake.<\/p>\n

The case — which dragged on for nearly two decades — became a symbol for both sides of the environment and property rights debate.<\/p>\n

Mr. Jones’ supporters are convinced that he is a sort of freedom fighter, battling against the evil bureuacracy that is the APA.<\/p>\n

Mr. Jones’ critics insist that he is the sort of scofflaw who — if left to their own devices — will steadily chip away at the environmental protections that shape the Adirondacks.<\/p>\n

Park Agency staff — with the backing of the Attorney General’s office — have long argued that he built the cabin illegally, without a required permit.<\/p>\n

They stated publicly and privately that a modicum of cooperation might have produced a quick resolution to the case.<\/p>\n

Mr. Jones insisted that state officials were exceeding their jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

But the significance of this peculiar case goes well beyond our perennial APA-vs-property-rights feud.\u00a0\u00a0 In this case, the real concern is what happens when politics and the rule of law collide.<\/p>\n

Whatever you think of Jones’ personal story and political agenda, he was clearly operating in a legal gray zone.<\/p>\n

As the Post-Star reports, “a county court justice held him in contempt and banned him from using his own property.”<\/p>\n

His case was scheduled to go to court again in January and there was a very real possibility that an independent judge would have ordered his cabin torn down.<\/p>\n

That’s when Governor David Paterson’s office intervened and forced the APA to settle the matter.\u00a0 As Will Doolittle’s reporting makes clear, this was a remarkable thing to do:<\/p>\n

John Collins, a former APA chairman and commissioner, called intervention by the governor’s office in a pending enforcement case unprecedented.<\/p>\n

Keith McKeever, the APA’s longtime spokesman, said it had never happened before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem here isn’t only that the Governor’s office appears to have set a troubling precedent, meddling in an on-going legal proceeding.<\/p>\n

(The Post-Star’s sources suggest that Paterson’s staff was hoping to avoid bad publicity.)<\/p>\n

No, the real problem is that the APA and the Attorney General’s offices were apparently doing their job.<\/p>\n

They were enforcing laws passed by the legislature and regulations developed through a formal process by the Park Agency and the Department of Environmental Conservation.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Mr. Paterson or his staff feel that some of those laws or regulations need to be changed?<\/p>\n

Or did they become convinced that state employees performed their jobs irresponsibly, over-zealously, or even illegally?<\/p>\n

We don’t know.\u00a0 This all happened behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

If the Governor did have serious concerns, the proper solution wasn’t simply to meddle in this one case.\u00a0 That leaves everyone else in the Park vulnerable, with no permanent fix.<\/p>\n

The better answer here would have been for the Governor to make clear his concerns with the APA and the Attorney General’s office.\u00a0 He should then have proposed any reforms or changes that he thought suitable.<\/p>\n

Without that kind of public process, this case threatens to discredit a legal and regulatory system that has existed in the Park for forty years — a process which allows alleged violators due process in the courts.<\/p>\n

Property rights activists insist that this system is unfair, with landowners like Mr. Jones regularly outgunned by state attorneys.<\/p>\n

But we have seen recently that the state of New York doesn’t always win the legal fights it takes on in the Adirondacks.<\/p>\n

In the case of Essex farmer Sandy Lewis, Lake Placid snowmobile activist Jim McCulley, and others, judges have ruled in favor of local residents.\u00a0 Those were important, precedent-setting cases.<\/p>\n

And Perhaps Mr. Jones would have prevailed as well, setting another precedent.\u00a0 We will never know.\u00a0 It was a political fix, not the rule of law, that prevailed here.<\/p>\n

In the end, this outcome may well provide a degree of personal justice for one landowner.\u00a0 But the case raises troubling new questions for everyone else living inside the Blue Line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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